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Other hooks in the series of 
Colonial Monographs by 
Blanche McManus are 

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Willi Eighty Illustrations 

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With Eighty Illustrations 

^be Passing of tbe SpantarO 

With Eighty Illustrations 

^bree jFrencb Eiplorers 

With Eighty Illustrations 

Small 4to, decorative cover design, 
each $1.25 



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Copyriglit, 1899 

BV 

E R. HERRICK & COMFANY 



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COLONIAL MONOGRAPHS 



The Quaker Colony 



INTRODUCTION 

The colony of William Penn thrived and pros- 
pered solely through the efforts of the founder and 
the justness of the principles which he avowed. 

The final outcome and growth was but to have 
been expected when is considered the principle in- 
volved ; 

As a congregation "The Society of Friends" 
sought a new home like unto the Pilgrims who 
came to Plymouth, that they might find a haven 
for their church. 

Persecution and oppression had but spurred 
them on to establish their faith ; it could not fail to 
advance and prosper, provided they were not an- 
tagonized, nor subjected to adverse circumstances or 
conditions, and so, they were assured by the power 
vested in the proprietary rights of William Penn. 

That they should have secured the aid and in- 
fluence of one so steadfast and honest as this brave 
man, was indeed fortunate; and to his earnest effort 
and financial aid is due the credit of that which 
even right and enthusiasm often availeth not. 

The later attributes of the colony, and of "The 
City of Brotherly Love" in particular, but reaffirm 
the assurance that the colony was founded upon 
lines which bespoke from the start equality and 



liberality, and in which the city of Philadelphia to- 
day, occupies and sustains a place unique among 
cities throughout the world, as a city of homes and 
homemakers. 

The distress and troublous visitations of the 
infant Colony were not by any means infrequent, 
nor did they, in any sense, lack severity, but 
throughout its career the perplexities were the com- 
paratively peaceful ones of finance and territorial 
boundaries and rights, and warfare, riot and blood- 
shed were conspicuous only by their absence, which 
in view of the principles of justness and equality 
professed by the Quakers made of the Red Man a 
friend instead of a foe. 

As prominent as was the religious feeling and 
motives of the " Friends," they sought not to coerce 
liberty and freedom of conscience in others, but 
rather to encourage a union wherein freedom of 
religion and a simple avowal of Christianity was 
all that was required of the community. 

B. McM. 



(To n ten t0 

— ♦ 

The Society of Friends, ii 

William Penn, Quaker, 19 

The Quaker Colony, 41 

The Great Treaty, • • • S3 

The City of Brotherly Love, 65 



i 



t 




The Society of Frienas, or Quakers, was founded 
by George Fox, a native of Drayton, in Leices- 
tershire, England, about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century: from the moment, of the incep- 
tion of the society, the members thereof were 
subjected to dire oppression, indignity and perse- 
cution, by fines, whipping and imprisonment. 

The sect immediately grew in numbers, not 
in England alone, but in Ireland, Wales and Hol- 
land, to which country they had emigrated, as 
had the Puritans, in order to be able to freely 
avow their religious opinions. 

They were a quiet and peaceable people, and 
for them to have been so unmercifully treated 
by all differing from their faith seems an unpar- 
donable injustice, but at that time the Govem- 




13 




ment frowned upon any and all dissenting faiths, 
particularly if they sought to publicly proclaim 
their views. 

They adopted certain strict views of equality, 
refused to take oath or to bow the head, to enlist 
as soldiers, and had no printed prayers nor hired 
preachers; practised simplicity in food and cos- 
tume, and addressed all persons as thee and thou, 
and, perhaps not the least aggravation of all, to 
the ceremonious court itself, refused to uncover 
the head when in the presence of Royalty. 

These omissions and lapses did much 
towards magnifying their unpopularity, and as 
they rapidly gained converts to their faith in 
England they were likewise vigilantly sup- 
pressed; such a democratic state of affairs was 




W 









V4 




not allowed to gain a vantage under a monarchical 
form of government. 

The "Friends" first came to America in 1656, 
to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where even 
among the Puritans, who had migrated and settled 
in the new land avowing a like principle in their 
demands for freedom of religious opinion, they 
were imprisoned, banished, and in the event of 
their return, as was actually the case in four in- 
stances, hanged; an uncharitableness hard to 
reconcile to any recognized form of the world's 
religion of the present day. 

From this time on their numbers grew 
largely, and settlers of the faith were to be found 
scattered throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Isl- 
and, Long Island, Virginia, and East and West 



mmj 





15 




Jersey. These were constantly increased by the 
arrival of many adherents from Great Britain and 
the Continent. 

They were generally admitted to have been 
thrifty and excellent citizens, full of compassion 
and brotherly love. They were never known 
to return a blow, but righteously turned the 
other cheek, seeming mostly to arouse the ire 
of their opponents from their apparent indif- 
ference to the qualities of courage and allegiance 
to the laws and customs of the land, attributes 
which were great factors in the social and moral 
life of the day. 

It is not entirely known as to how the name 
Quaker originated. One authority states that it 
was given to them in derision of their "trembling 




i6 




under the awful sense of the infinite purity of 
God, " while Fox himself, who, as he was brought 
up before the magistrates to answer the charges 
preferred against him, told them to "quake at 
the name of the Lord;" either one of which 
explanations seems plausible and pertinent 
enough to be accepted. 

In 1670 an order was signed by the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and thirteen others, direct- 
ing Christopher Wrenn to pull down the Quaker 
meeting-houses in Ratcliffe and Horsely, which 
was done, the material sold and the proceeds 
confiscated. 

Up to 1700 it is on record that individual 
members of the Society had been fined in the 
aggregate an amount equalling one million 




17 




pounds, and at one time there were over four 
thousand Quakers imprisoned in England and 
the provinces. 

In numbers the sect never exceeded two 
hundred thousand at any time, and at the present 
day the orthodox Quakers probably do not exceed 
one hundred and twenty -five thousand, the 
greater part of whom are in the United States. 



% 



i8 



$ 




William Penn, grandson of Sir Giles Penn, an 
English consul in the Mediterranean, and son of 
Admiral Sir William Penn, the conqueror of the 
Island of Jamaica, was born in London, in the 
parish of St. Catherines, near the Tower, October 
14, 1644. 

As a young man, while yet a student at 
Oxford, he became affiliated with the Quakers, 
some of whom he had met and had associated 
with in England and Ireland; he preached in the 
streets of London, and was apprehended upon a 
warrant from the Lord Mayor, and committed to 
Newgate Prison; at his trial at the Old Bailey he 
courageously and heroically pleaded his own 
cause, resulting in his final acquittal. 

Penn's personality was an important factor 




21 




in his success as a leader among his fellow 
* 'Friends ;" he was a cultivated and polished gentle- 
man; had travelled much; was versed in law 
and philosophy, and had proved himself also a 
strong and forceful writer; having put forth some 
valuable thoughts on his favorite subject while 
in Newgate, notably: "The Great Case of Liberty 
and Conscience," "An Apology for the Quakers," 
and "Truth Rescued from Imposture." 

After travelling on the continent for some 
months he returned to England and joined the 
" Society of Friends" in 1668; almost immediately 
thereafter he was incarcerated in the Tower of 
London for the ofifence of seeking to open and 
arouse heresy and treason against the edict of 
the established law. 




22 




Jne of the direct causes of his imprisonment 
was the authorship of a work entitled "The 
Sandy Foundation Shaken, " which embodied 
religious principles and criticism at direct vari- 
ance with those of the land. 

While in prison awaiting trial he further 
wrote "No Cross No Crown," and " Innocency 
with the Open Face," a vindication of the views 
and beliefs for which he had been imprisoned; 
his final release was brought about by royal 
clemency, his family always having stood high 
in the favor of the Royal House. 

Penn inherited from his father a claim to a 
debt of sixteen thousand pounds against the gov- 
ernment, which was settled by a grant of wood- 
land in America, of forty thousand square miles, 




23 




west of the Delaware River. This circumstance 
served the government a twofold purpose, that 
of cancelling the debt on particularly advan- 
tageous terms, and of ridding the country of a 
vigorous dissenter; as Penn was desirous of 
founding a colony of Quakers in the New World 
where they might evolve and further develop the 
ideas of religious libert}^ and sincerity with 
which they became imbued. 

Penn was chartered Lord Proprietor of the 
colony in 1681, and immediately sent over his 
emissary and agent, William Markham, to 
acquaint the then present Swedish, Dutch and 
English settlers in the locality of the anticipated 
movement. 

Markham, who was a cousin of Penn, was 




24 




"deputized to call a council of nine, he to preside; 
to read his letter and commission and the King's 
declaration to the inhabitants, and to take their 
acknowledgment of his authority and propriety; 
to settle boundaries between Penn and his neigh- 
bors; to survey, set out, rent, or sell lands accord- 
ing to the instructions given; to erect courts, 
appoint sheriffs, justices of the peace, etc. ; to call 
to his aid any of the inhabitants, for the legal 
suppression of tumult." 

After his (Markham's) arrival in the wilder- 
ness he reported in a letter sent home, thus: 

" . . . . it is a very fine country, if it were not 
so overgrown with woods, and very healthy, here 
people live to be a hundred years of age. 

" Provisions of all sorts are indifferent plenti- 




25 




ful, venison especially, I have seen four buck 
bought for less than five shillings." 

" The Indians kill them only for their skins, 
and if the Christians will not buy the flesh they 
let it hang and rot upon the tree. In the winter 
there is mighty plenty of wild fowl of all sorts. 
Partridges I am cloyed with, we catch them by 
hundreds at a time. In the fall of the leaf or after 
Harvest, here are abundance of wild turkeys 
which are mighty easy to be shot. Duck, Mallard, 
Geese and Swans in abundance, wild fish are in 
great plenty. In short, if a country life be liked 
by any it might be here." .... 

Penn wished to call the colony New Wales, 
it being a hilly country, like that across the sea, 
but the King chose to name it in honor of Penn's 




26 




father, the great Admiral. Penn afterwards 
referred to it as Sylvania, which was promptly- 
prefixed with P-e-n-n by the King, somewhat 
against the opposition of Penn, who feared it 
might be looked upon as a vanity in him rather 
than as a compliment from the King. 

Having completed all his arrangements, Penn 
wrote an affectionate letter to his wife and 
children, and another ' ' to all faithful friends in 
England," and immediately set sail on board the 
ship Welcome, accompanied by about one hun- 
dred persons, mostly "Friends" from Sussex. 

After a voyage of two months they came 
in sight of the Delaware capes on the twenty- 
fourth of October; of the one hundred who took 
passage with Penn, thirty died of small-pox dur- 




27 




ing the voyage, another great oppression which 
did not in the least, however, deter the remainder 
from fulfilling their purpose. 

Before embarking upon "The Holy Experi- 
ment," as he was pleased to call it, Penn told the 
King that he would purchase equity in the lands 
of the Indians, saying that even the right of 
discovery and occupation would not allow them 
to usurp or take unbidden the land from its 
rightful owners, the red-men. 

New England had begun by trying to convert 
the Indians, and had acquired a great measure of 
their lands in the name of the gospel: not so with 
William Penn; he avowed that the Indians were 
the descendants of the ten dispersed tribes of 
Israel and met them in a free and equal manner. 




28 




He argued thus: "For their original I am 
ready to believe them of the Jewish race, I 
mean of the stock of the ten tribes, and that 
for the following reasons: First, they were to 
go to a land not planted or known, hence, 
across the sea. . . . next I find them of a like 
countenance, but this is not all; they agree in 
rites and reckon by moons; they have a sort of 
feast of tabernacles; and are said to lay their 
altar upon twelve stones, and remain in mourn- 
ing a year." 

As by the terms of the treaty he agreed to 
occupy no lands except as might be acquired by 
fair purchase, and in addition required of them 
that they sell to no one except him (Penn) or his 
agents. This proposition, in view, perhaps, of 




29 




the way in which the matter was led up to, was 
readily assented to on their part. 

Upon Penn's arrival at Newcastle on the 
Delaware, where the settlement had been planted 
by his Secretary, Markham, who had preceded 
him, he was received with due honor and cere- 
mony as befitted his position as Lord Proprietor 
of the colony. 

The original charter vested William Penn 
with a perpetual proprietorship of a vast region 
which included what was afterward set apart as 
Delaware, in consideration of Penn's having 
given a receipt in full to the King for the amount 
of his claim on the Government, and an honora- 
rium of two beaver skins per annum. 

Penn sought to found the colony on the basis 




30 




of religious freedom and declared that every 
Christian without distinction of sect should be 
eligible to public employment and recognition, 
and that it was to afford an asylum to the good 
and oppressed of all nations, with a frame of gov- 
ernment which would be an example, showing all 
men as free and happy as they could be. 

After certain minor details had been adjusted 
Penn immediately sought to consummate the 
treaty with the Indians which he had so earnestly 
wished for and avowed. 

The Charter comprehended a much more 
extensive tract than they were prepared to barter 
for at once but agreed then and there that all of 
the land ultimately to be occupied should only be 
taken up and acquired by direct purchase. 




31 




As in all things he counselled that justice and 
moderation, so consistent with his own peaceful 
views and acts. 

The great treaty was made at the Indian 
village of Shackamaxon, on the Delaware, in 
November of the same year as Penn's advent in 
the colony, and was set forth in terms which 
meant something more than the mere price of 
lands: "The recognition of equal rights of hu- 
manity." 

Plans were immediately begun for the laying 
out of the city of Philadelphia, which Penn, true 
to his principles of brotherly love, so named after 
the ancient Greek city of Asia Minor. 

The land was surveyed and the plans drawn 
by Thomas Holme, the Surveyor-General, the 




3« 




streets being named after the different varieties 
of trees to be found in the vicinity, and crossing 
each other at regular intervals, dividing the city 
into broad squares. 

Such of the land as was early occupied, was 
built up with frame houses, each in the centre of 
its own plot of ground, which soon afterward 
gave way to the more substantial brick and stone, 
so familiar in the older buildings of the city yet 
to be seen; the city thus earning and meriting 
early in its career a reputation for fitness and 
conformity, the fame of which has since been so 
well sustained. 

After certain intermediate changes, over 
which Penn himself presided, and ably dealt 
with, the question of an extension of Crown 




33 




Privileges and the settlement of the boundary- 
line between Maryland and Pennsylvania came 
up, and necessitated his return to England in 
order to the better deal with the subject. He 
sailed therefor in 1684, leaving behind a prosper- 
ous and flourishing colony of seven thousand 
souls. 

While in England he met with sundry difl&- 
culties, and still further annoyance and indiffer- 
ence on the part of the authorities, although 
finally through the intercession of his friend, the 
King, his claims were recognized and adjusted 
and he further secured the release of some twelve 
hundred of his fellow Quakers who were at the 
time imprisoned in England; an action which was 
the forerunner of a proclamation by the King 




34 




himself, which resulted in the granting of the lib- 
erty of conscience and freedom of religion to all. 

Penn was readily able to bring about a settle- 
ment of the dispute in reference to the Maryland 
boundary line, which resulted in Lord Baltimore 
accepting a tract which was about one-half the 
extent of the original claim. 

In 1692, and while Penn was still in England^ 
the authorities accused him of disloyalty, and 
sought to abrogate his powers by taking away 
his proprietorship rights in the colony, and by a 
Royal Commission the governing power was 
transferred and vested in the English Governor 
of New York ; these suspicions were soon after 
dissipated, and the proprietorship restored to 
Penn, which was held by his direct descendants 




35 




until the breaking out of the Revolution. 

During Penn's absence in England the gov- 
ernment was in the control of Thomas Lloyd, 
who was not a Quaker, but who was esteemed 
and trusted highly by Penn and his associates. 
Penn did not return again to America until 1699, 
during which time the local government changed 
from hand to hand in the person of the Governor 
many times, but always in support of the origi- 
nal ideas of the founder to the fullest possible 
extent. 

After his return to this country Penn occupied 
the slate-roofed house which remained standing 
on the original site on Second Street, between 
Chestnut and Walnut, well within the memory 
of many now living. 




36 




He remained in this country but for the brief 
period of two years, and in 1701 again returned 
to England ; he had hardly arrived in London 
when false charges of a claim were preferred 
against him which he refused to pay ; accordingly 
he was cast into the Fleet, where he contracted 
an acute disease. His position was finally vindi- 
cated and he was released, but his health grew 
rapidly worse, and paralysis deprived him of his 
memory and of the power of locomotion. 

After his release from prison he lived for six 
years, afflicted with much personal suffering, dur- 
ing which time his business affairs were ably 
managed and conducted by his wife. He died 
at Ruscombe, in Berkshire, July 30, 1718. 

Here had been a nature of strong contrasting 




Zl 




emotions, a shepherd of a flock, a courtier, a 
religious enthusiast, and an able man of business, 
beginning life as the son and heir of one who 
was high in the favor of the court, and finally 
becoming the leader of a despised, persecuted, 
and humble sect, still retaining the favor and 
intimacy of the court itself, although avowing at 
the time doctrines which other of the authorities 
would not willingly have overlooked. 

He had given his all, representing his fortune, 
enthusiasm, the best years of his life, and his 
most earnest effort, for the good of the colony, 
with the result that the settlement proved to be, 
in his own words, "... the greatest colony that 
ever man established in America on a private 
credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that 








'^^it^^^^^^^'^^^^'^^^'^ 






are to be found therein . . ." 

Relief as to the serenity of the affairs of the 
province came too late to ease the condition of 
the honest and generous founder's mind or purse ; 
but his former interests, after a protracted law- 
suit, finally passed to the children of his second 
wife, who with their immediate descendants re- 
mained in close proprietorship until the War of 
the Revolution. 



^ 



39 



n 



^ 




The founding of Pennsylvania emanated solely 
from the wish of William Penn to establish "a 
free colony for all mankind." 

His inheritance of a claim upon the then 
ruling house of Great Britain was but the means 
to an end. 

The charter which conveyed to William Penn 
this tract of wilderness was not enough in his 
honest eyes to establish a permanent claim and 
title to the land which descended unto him. He 
sought by terms of purchase and the famous 
treaty to build a firm foundation for the fame 
and faith of his religion. 

Previous to the second English occupation of 
New York the Dutch territory in America ex- 
tended from the Connecticut River on the east to 





the Delaware River on the west, all of which was 
then peopled largely by the Dutch themselves. 

After the Dutch possessions fell into English 
hands in 1664, the Duke of York gave to Lord 
John Berkley and Sir George Carteret the tract 
lying between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. 

Carteret had been Governor of the Island of 
Jersey in the English Channel, and named the 
new proprietory province New Jersey, which was 
further subdivided into East and West Jersey and 
governed by Carteret and Berkley respectively. 

Berkley disposed of West Jersey to the 
Quakers, and after the death of Carteret, Penn 
purchased from his heirs the eastern division. 

The province of Delaware, named for De la 
Warre, the Governor of Virginia, belonged prop- 




44 




erly to the Duke of York as proprietor, but Penn's 
rule governed there, he being the Duke's tenant. 

The Dutch claimed jurisdiction over the 
waters of Delaware Bay and River, which claim 
was assailed by the Swedes who had migrated 
there and settled at Wiaco under the leadership 
of New Amsterdam's disgruntled former Gov- 
ernor, Peter Minuit, in 1638. 

The redoubtable Stuyvesant set out against 
them in 1655 with a formidable force by sea and 
land; subdued them and was able to substantiate 
his claim until the fall of Dutch rule in Amer- 
ica in 1674. 

In 1 68 1 William Penn's charter secured him 
the proprietorship of forty thousand square miles 
of territory, a portion of which was afterwards 




45 




made over to Maryland as a compromise of the 
claims of Charles Calvert, the third Lord Balti- 
more, that Perm's grant encroached upon his own 
territory. 

Fifty years later this was further compro- 
mised, and led up to the running of a new and 
permanent boundary line by Mason and Dixon in 
1767, the boundary posts having on one side the 
arms of William Penn, and on the other those of 
Lord Baltimore. 

This was the famous Mason and Dixon line 
which so strongly marked the limits of the North 
and South in the late Civil War, which speaks 
much for its strategic value and importance. 

Previous to Penn's arrival in the colony, only 
the seat of government, as represented by the 




46 




courts and offices, was at Newcastle on the Dela- 
ware, and here Penn was first introduced to his 
new possessions. 

The settlement at that time was principally 
occupied by the Dutch, by whom it was founded, 
with a sprinkling of Swedes, Germans, Welsh and 
English. 

Later Penn moved up the river in his ship to 
the Swedish settlement of Uplands, which he 
promptly renamed Chester, in honor of a number 
of persons from that locality at home who had 
joined the expedition. 

.As soon thereafter as practicable, was con- 
summated the Treaty with the Indians, so famous- 
ly pictured by Benjamin West, and a Frame of 
Government for the colony was adopted. 




47 




At this time was also enacted a code called 
the Great Law, defining minutely the rights of 
citizens, and which only required of them that 
they should put all faith in Jesus Christ, in con- 
sideration of which all further toleration was 
granted. 

It was, of course, implied that all were to 
hold themselves peaceably and justly in civil 
society. The only offences which were especially 
to be discouraged were: " drinking healths, prizes, 
stage plays, and cards and dice;" but the criminal 
code was mild in the extreme, only murder being 
punishable by death. 

The year following Penn's arrival over fifteen 
hundred settlers arrived from England, mostly 
Quakers, and still others yet from Germany who 




48 




had also embraced the religion of the Friends, 
and who ultimately settled at Germantown, now 
a part of the present city of Philadelphia. 

Penn wished to establish a Christian state, 
founded on Christian principles, and directed by 
Christian love, principles and aims, which was 
quite the opposite of the blue-laws of Plymouth 
Colony and the regime of warfare and conquest 
in Virginia, the scenes of England's other activ- 
ities in the new world. 

In spite of the process of warfare and blood- 
shed, through which the Virginia Colony had 
gone, it had in a way been more favored than 
the other English settlements in America, and 
was more than usually productive and re- 
sourceful, the climate was equable, and woods 




49 




and waters abounded with fish and fowl. With 
direct deep-water communication with England 
the export trade was in flourishing condition; 
this was the state of affairs which the Quakers 
looked forward to in being able to locate their 
colony in a contiguous and adjacent spot. To 
some extent this proved ultimately to be, partic- 
ularly in reference to the desirability of the loca- 
tion, though the settlers were more taken up with 
the founding of their colony than they were with 
the immediate establishment of commercial rela- 
tions, the project being endowed with sufficient 
means to launch itself on a prosperous wave 
at the start. 

The success of the Quaker colony was a vic- 
tory of peace and a triumph of the noble virtues 




50 




of innocency and truth as against selfishness, war- 
fare and mercenary motives, which have so often 
overruled these finer instincts. 

For nearly one hundred years the colony was 
under the direct control of the Friends, and dur- 
ing that time no war-cry was to be heard within 
its confines — "Quaker garb had proven as invul- 
nerable as a coat of mail." 

The colony was early and ever noted for its 
high moral character, good order, peace, and an 
intense love of faith; and fitting it was that the 
Declaration of Independence should have reached 
perfection on the same spot where was so earn- 
estly avowed and practised the principles of 
freedom and equality. 




51 



^ 



^ 




Any account of Penn's Treaty with the Indians 
must depend very greatly upon traditional re- 
ports of the circumstance, little having been 
written in reference thereto and no records are 
available which recount the actual happenings 
of the occasion, beyond such as are to be found 
in documents relating to contemporary events, 
and of the conditions which made the treaty 
desirable. 

In spite of the absence of documentary evi- 
dence of the details of the conference, we are in 
possession of a sufficient amount of verified fact 
to assure us of the probability of the generally 
accepted version being correct. 

The Treaty was made late in November, 
1682, at Shackamaxon, some miles above the set- 





tlement, on the Delaware River, but now in- 
cluded within the limits of the present city of 
Philadelphia. 

Penn, accompanied by his council, interpre- 
ters, and a delegation of the curious Dutch, 
Swedish and English settlers, came up the river 
to the appointed meeting place, and the Govern- 
or's barge moored to the bank opposite the great 
elm, beneath which burned the council fires of 
the red men. 

A peaceful and romantic scene, which was 
further heightened by the picturesque surround- 
ings, and the wealth of color and splendor with 
which Nature herself endowed the occasion. 

The Indians were represented at the treaty 
by delegates from three nations, the Delawares^ 




56 





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Iroquois, and Shawnese, with probably a scatter- 
ing from the other neighborhood tribes. 

They were drawn up in a great circle beneath 
the shadow of the elm, a representative horde of 
noble red men, the Chiefs in the centre, sur- 
rounded by their councillors and braves, with 
the squaws and their papooses in the back- 
ground. 

In their midst sat Chief Tamanen, the great 
Sachem of the Delawares, gorgeous with dye and 
feathers. He was their great prophet and ad- 
viser, and was supposed to be in close alliance 
with the Great and Good Spirit and highly en- 
dowed with wisdom, virtue, and prudence. 

As the Quakers appeared upon the scene, the 
contrast between the two races was made the 




57 




more apparent. 

The Founders were attired in their quaint 
gray costumes, with coats extending to the knees, 
and well becovered with buttons, ample waist- 
coats, knee breeches, buckled shoes, and ruffles at 
the neck and sleeves. Penn's dress was distin- 
guishable from the others only by a sash of blue 
silk which he wore around the body, while his 
secretary, Markham, wore the prescribed dress of 
the English service. 

On the head of the great Sachem was a chap- 
let, a decorative headpiece which held up a small 
deer-horn, the emblem of kingly dignity and 
power, and which, when worn, was understood 
to sanctify the locality and the persons of all pres- 
ent inviolable. He smoked the Calumet, or Pipe 




58 




of Peace, a long pipe of hard black wood and 
wound with ribbon and coral interspersed with 
feathers of various hues. 

The treaty was to be an everlasting covenant 
of peace and friendship between the two races; 
in strong contrast with the agreements that had 
been made in other parts of the country, notably 
that of Carver, of the Plymouth colony, whose 
treaty with Massasoit comprehended nothing 
more than a defensive war alliance. 

The treaty of William Penn was never broken 
or overreached by either party thereto, so far as 
the respective organizations were concerned. 

Through the interpreters Penn addressed 
them thus : 

"We meet on the broad pathway of good 




59 




faith and good will ; no advantage shall be taken 
by either side, and all shall be openness and love. 

" I will not call you children, for parents 
sometimes chide their children ; nor brother, for 
brothers differ. The friendship between you and 
me I will not compare to a chain, for that the 
rains might rust, or a falling tree might break. 

" We are all the same as if one man's body 
was to be divided into two parts ; we are all one 
flesh and blood." 

After these, and probably still other expres- 
sions of friendliness, Penn unrolled the parch- 
ment on which were written the details of the 
plans set forth in the preliminary address, pre- 
sented it to the Sachems, and desired of them to 
preserve it carefully for three generations, that 




60 




their children might know what had passed be- 
tween them. 

Little more is recorded or known, except 
that presents and peace offerings passed between 
them, and the Indians, who had previously laid 
down their arms, presented to the Quakers a belt 
of wampum, the official pledge of fidelity, and in 
reply said : 

" We will live in love and concord with Wil- 
liam Penn and his children as long as the sun 
and moon shall endure." 

This was ever afterward lived up to, and no 
Indian ever knowingly or wilfully shed Quaker 
blood. 

There, facing the golden autumn sunset, was 
concluded the most momentous deed which had 




6i 




yet taken place between the invaders of the red 
man's domain and its natural and rightful owners, 
and of which more has been said in praise than 
of any other like incident transmitted to posterity. 

This, says Voltaire, was the only agreement 
between those people and the Christians which 
was not ratified by an oath, or never broken, 
which led him to further express himself to the 
effect that the religion of William Penn was the 
nearest approach to accepted Christianity. 

It is greatly to the honor and glory of all con- 
cerned that the manifest expressions of peace 
and good will so overshadowed those of merce- 
nary trade and barter. 

Romance and tradition also surrounded the 
famous Treaty Elm for many years. It became 




62 




famous again during the Revolution ; the Eng- 
lish General Simcoe so respecting it that when 
his soldiers were about to fell it for firewood, he 
placed a sentinel beneath with instructions to 
allow not a branch of it to be touched. 

Certain other conditions and agreements 
were entered into from time to time, all bearing 
more or less directly upon the promises that had 
been exchanged at the time of the Treaty ; one of 
importance in reference to trial by jury, wherein 
it was agreed that whenever an Indian was to 
be tried for any offence within the jurisdiction of 
the Quakers the panel was to be composed of six 
Indians and six white men. 

On a certain occasion when a purchase of land 
was being arranged for, it was stipulated that for 





the price to be paid the Indians were to give in 
exchange as large a tract as could be traversed 
in a three days' walk on either side of a square. 
After a rather deliberate stroll of only a day and 
a half's duration, including stops, the Quakers 
concluded that they had covered enough ground 
for their needs, and left the remainder of their 
due in the hands of the Indians, bespeaking great 
confidence in the business integrity on the part 
of all concerned. 



$ 



64 



^ 




Before setting out from England Penn pub- 
lished an account of his province, with the inten- 
tion of attracting settlers thereto. He promised 
to sell five thousand acres of ground, free from 
incumbrance, for One Hundred Pounds, with a 
quit-rent of a shilling yearly for one hundred 
acres. He offered to rent lands, not exceeding 
two hundred acres in each tract, at one penny 
yearly per acre, and to make an allowance for 
servants carried over to the amount of fifty acres 
per head. 

Further conditions were set forth and agreed, 
viz.: "that so soon as it pleaseth the persons 
who arrive there, a certain quantity of land or 
ground plat shall be laid out for a large Town or 
City, in the most convenient place upon the river 



mm Mm m mm mm 




for health and navigation ; and every purchaser 
and adventurer shall by lot have so much land 
therein as shall answer to the proportion which 
he hath bought or taken up on rent." 

As early as May, 1682, before Penn's arrival 
upon the scene, Thomas Holme, with others, 
began the laying out of the great town. Penn's 
instructions were "to settle the figure of the town 
so that the streets may hereafter be uniform down 
to the water, and let every house be placed, if the 
person pleases, in the middle of its plat, so that 
there may be ground on each side for gardens or 
orchards." 

According to the original plan, there was a 
street leading from the Delaware to the Schuyl- 
kill River, and a boundary street lying along each 



m.mmmmm^ m m 



68 




river. Originally these streets bore different 
names from those which they do at present, but 
the nomenclature was early changed in favor of 
the present form, that of naming them after the 
local varieties of trees. 

The name Philadelphia was chosen by the pro- 
prietor himself, and was probably adopted from 
that of the ancient city of the Old World, the seat 
of one of the early Christian churches, signifying 
brotherly love, which naturally commended itself 
to the taste and judgment of the founder, who 
fondly spoke of it thus : 

"And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settle- 
ment of this province, named before thou wert 
born, what love, what care, what service, what 
travail, has there been to bring thee forth and 



wwwmm^m 



69 




preserve thee from such as would defile thee." 

The city increased greatly within the next few 
months, within a year it being estimated that 
there were eighty dwellings and over five hun- 
dred inhabitants, and in 1700, twenty years after, 
there were over seven hundred houses and forty- 
five hundred inhabitants. 

In the slate-roofed house before mentioned 
was born John Penn, the only child of the family 
who was born in America. William Penn, Jr., 
came to the country in 1704, and was said to be 
no credit to his illustrious father in taste or 
habits. 

Germantown, now incorporated in the city of 
Philadelphia, was settled by the German Quakers 
who came over early in the beginnings of the 




70 




colony. The location was first called to the 
attention of Francis Daniel Pastorius, a personal 
friend of William Penn (Whittier's " Pennsyl- 
vania Pilgrim"). 

The tract comprised nearly six thousand acres, 
and was peopled mostly by fellow-countrymen of 
Pastorius, although not all of them were of the 
Quaker persuasion. Here was established the 
first type foundry in America, by Christopher 
Sower, in 1735, who also published the first 
quarto German Bible. 

The facts recounted herein follow closely the 
actual occurrences and events which led up to the 
founding and the successful conduct of the "Qua- 
ker Colony"; and to the individual whose sterling 
qualities and admirable foresight which made 



0^^i^gii^.m.mf':mm 



71 




this possible, all honor and respect is due. 

The trials and vicissitudes which befel the 
colony were purely akin to the principles which 
founded it, and were not the usual causes of 
bloodshed, riot, and warfare with which other of 
the colonies were afflicted, and, above all, a fact 
which added not a little to their serenity, was the 
complete pacification of the Indian, who became 
a friend instead of a foe. 

Here also is the complete ascendency of the 
home-making, fellow-loving qualities so often 
lacking in colony-building; not but that their 
troubles were at times grave and difficult to deal 
with. But, to reiterate, it pleased these generous 
people to deal kindly, rather than to attempt the 
persuasion of anger, or warring words and acts. 



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72 



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